Friday, October 24, 2014

Seven Quick Takes #4

1. The Stairs

We're back to working on projects again. I'm glad to be back, as I have been itching to continue to work on the house. Luckily, most of the stuff is cosmetic and easy to fix--inexpensive too, for the most part.

For instance, the basement stairs. My sister had some white paint left over from when she was painting her girls rooms. The basement stairs were really drab, so I painted them white. What a difference!

2. The Bathroom

I have finally finished painting the bathroom. It does look better, but it still needs so much work than just a different color of paint.

This bathroom is going to cost us a lot of money, and it's not just cosmetic stuff. The floor was put in wrong; around the toilet there isn't any floor at all, just plywood, which pee soaked from when certain people have missed the toilet. There is always a pee smell in the bathroom.

The toilet also needs to be replaced. We're also going to replace the vanity and mirror as I cannot stand medicine cabinets. The shelves are so tiny and every time you open something, things fall out.

I have so many complaints about the bathroom. Sorry, but you would too if you lived here. For instance:

It is small and cramped.

It smells like pee.

The shower/tub is stained with dirt that won't come off.

Only two drawers in the vanity work.

The medicine cabinet is non-functional.

And the shower head is small and corroded.

The shower head is rusted and so corroded with calcium that it shoots out only a small stream of water. It is so small that you literally have to aim your body for the part that you want to be washed. I call it: "The duck-and-aim-shower-head."

I'm excited to say that I found a MUCH larger shower head for only $45! Am I the only one that assumed that the new modern and larger shower heads were over a hundred dollars?? There are some over $100 if you really want one, but you can find pretty much the same for a much cheaper price. This new shower head is HUGE! No ducking or aiming here!

It may not look like it, but I'm holding the new shower head right next to the old one. Yes, the old one is even smaller than the inside circle piece of the new shower head.

It is even bigger than Anna's head!

Never mind her, she wants to be a cat for Halloween.

Needless to say, I'm pretty excited about our new shower head. After five months of trying to aim to get sprayed in the right places, it will be so nice to just stand still and take a shower.

3. The Pantry

Thanks to my sister (again), we have decided to one of the closets as a pantry. We have such limited cabinet space so this works out perfect. There was supposed to be an "after" picture, but I can't find it, plus, the pantry isn't technically finished yet, even though we're using it.

Dennis was in the middle of installing shelves when I took the picture.

4.The Kitchen

This is a work in progress and will take some time to complete, but I'm really excited about it. Our kitchen is technically out-dated, and since we can't afford to re-do the entire kitchen, we're doing little updates the best we can. For instance, we're putting backsplash on. We can't afford the "real stuff", as in tile, so we're using this stick-on stuff. If you're reading this with raised eyebrows, believe me, I was feeling the same way when I first found this stuff in the store. But it is as easy as it looks; just clean the wall and stick this stuff right on. It stays on well and easy to clean. As to how long it will last, I guess we will see--it's supposed to stay on for as long as you want it to. But I thought this would be a good alternative until we want something permanent. Plus, it's cheaper too!

We have so many more of these to put on..

5. The Dentist

Taking a shift from projects here, I will tell you now what a bad mom I am. I took Anna for her very first dental exam, thinking that it would just be about introducing her to the dentist and having her teeth counted.

Wrong!

She has three cavities. Three, people!!! I was not expecting this at all. You would think by the way I reacted that the dentist told me her whole mouth was rotten or something. ("She has HOW many cavities?!?!) I felt so guilty. The dentist could see I was feeling bad and was trying to make me feel better, not "beat myself up" and all, but I have good reason for feeling guilty and it doesn't make it better to not except the responsibility. I have been down-right lazy about brushing Anna's teeth, sometimes not brushing them at all and when she does brush them, I haven't checked them over. It seemed like she always did such a good job, but she never got the back of her mouth, which is where all the cavities are. So now, thanks to our laziness, Anna needs to go to a special dental pediatrics, be put under, all to have her cavities removed.

It might sound a little extreme for her to be "put under" just for cavities, but seeing that she is so young, and that this is her first experience, the dentist wants to keep it very positive for her so she won't have any fears of the dentist. Not only that, but there are 3 of them they will have to fix and she probably wouldn't be able to sit still for that long.

Yes, I am feeling really bad about this. Bad mom. Very, very bad mom.

6. The Punishment.

Well, feeling as bad as I did, I wanted to do penance of some kind to make it up to Anna.

No fear, as Anna was getting her teeth cleaned, the dentist invited me to look at my "bump" that had formed against an old problem tooth. What I thought was going to be declared as "just a bump" is actually an infected abscess, thanks to my root canal tooth (which is now gone). The roots in my old tooth are still exposed and infected, which is what caused the abscess.

He didn't feel it was safe to give me antibiotics since I'm allergic to Amoxicillin so he felt it would be wise to just get the roots cleaned out. And while we're at it, get rid of all four of my wisdom teeth instead.

Penance paid in full.

(If you would like to know how I really feel about the whole thing, read this post--and then please pray for me!)

7. The Book

I don't know if you remember me talking about writing a childrens book?

I am excited to say that it's underway; my brother has taken it over, so it's in good hands. He and my other brother are funding for a professional illustrator to illustrate the book; her work is amazing! I can't wait for it to be all done! To see her Etsy shop, click here!